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Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian
- The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus
- Narrated by: Finn J. D. John
- Length: 35 hrs and 6 mins
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Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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With Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard created more than the greatest action hero of the twentieth century---he also launched a genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery. But Conan was not the first archetypal adventurer to spring from Howard's fertile imagination.
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5 out of 5 stars
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classic!!
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Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities...there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand...to tread the jeweled thrones of the earth under his sandalled feet.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Solid Conan action!
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Kull
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In a meteoric career that spanned a mere 12 years, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. From his fertile imagination sprang some of fiction's most enduring heroes. Yet while Conan the Cimmerian is indisputably Howard's greatest creation, it was in his earlier sequence of tales featuring Kull, a fearless warrior with the brooding intellect of a philosopher, that Howard began to develop the distinctive themes and the richly evocative blend of history and mythology .
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No surprises here.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
classic!!
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Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities...there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand...to tread the jeweled thrones of the earth under his sandalled feet.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Solid Conan action!
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Publisher's Summary
This collection contains all of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author.
A full e-book copy of this book in Interactive PDF format is included and can be downloaded by clicking the "PDF" link in your Audible library (it's in the "Title" column). This PDF includes the audiobook chapter numbers, to make navigation easier.
Excerpt from the introduction:
"When the first Conan of Cimmeria story appeared in the pages of Weird Tales magazine in December 1932, nothing quite like it had ever before appeared in print. Author Robert E. Howard had been writing stories broadly similar to it for half a decade; but it was with Conan, and the Hyborian Age storyworld in which he was placed, that Howard finally fully doped out the sub-genre that would become known as "sword and sorcery", of which Howard is today considered the founding father.
"Conan's origins date back to an experiment in 1926 titled "The Shadow Kingdom", featuring the character Kull, exile of Atlantis. The idea - Howard's great innovation - was, at its core, historical fiction set in a pre-historical period. That pre-historical period - being, of course, lost in the mists of time - could contain anything Howard might like to include: evil races of sentient snake-things, sorcerers, undead creatures, demons walking upon the earth, anything.
"In other words, Howard was creating a secular mythology."
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jordan f.
- 2021-03-04
Conan
Conan has long been my favorite literary character. if you're a fan of the original pulp books than this is for you. most of Howard's story's in one great package. my only complaint is the narrator pronounces Cimmerian, kinda bugs me, but what can you do.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jeff hardy
- 2018-07-11
Robert E Howard was the best
Robert E Howard has to be the most underrated author who ever lived! His skill as writer is unmatched whe it comes to painting the scene in your head. The narrator does a wonderful job except in The hour of the dragon which for some reason he uses a different voice for Conan than all the other stories!? I assume it is because it was the first story recorded and then the voice was changed . Other than that the narration is really great. Highly Recommend this for any Conan fan.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Daniel Andrews
- 2022-12-16
This was everything I hoped them to be.
I was so entertained by these familiar stories I’ve read in several versions from the comics. Except the comics offer much less of the small details to difficult to describe within the limited pages and format of a comic.
The reader differentiates voices well enough and I wouldn’t expect a great female voice so I can’t critique that. A man doing a female voice just made them sound old but by no means did it take way how the women’s actions or descriptions described.
I will be starting this over on my commute home today, and would recommend it.
I wish a good tv series could be made of these stories with a correct depiction of Conan.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Darren
- 2018-09-23
Amazing!!!!
I wish people still wrote books this good!!! Had me captivated from start to finish, truly an original gem.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Beni Berisha
- 2019-09-15
Worth every penny
Great audio book. Very happy with it. Worth every penny. I would buy it again.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dylan B.
- 2024-01-10
Brilliant Stories but...
Reader lacks vitality and energy, some silly accents and femine voices also. He seemed quite bored during.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Josh
- 2019-05-31
Overall great
Great to get into the stories which birthed the sword and sorcery genre.
My only complaint was the Heart of the Dragon. The same narrator but he used a different voice and tone for Conan. The performance was great throughout the entire book but this seems like it’s just a separate project that was edited into this audio book and it shows as the narrator’s performance differs so greatly.
Otherwise it’s a great set of stories and I’ll listen to it more than once that’s for sure. Narrator is still 8/10 overall as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Wesley
- 2021-09-16
Amazing stories
Robert E Howard was an artist when he told his stories with characters that jumped off the page and settings that made me think I was there. I started listening because I started playing Conan exiles and wanted to know more lore but what I found was so much more. I also have to say that the narrator was incredibly brilliant in his way of telling the story my only wish is that he would do more audio books for more of Robert E Howards work. Finn D. J Jhon was made to read Robert E howards work.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Langer MD
- 2021-12-08
Feel Free To Ignore The Commentary
"Sword & Sorcery" fantasy is an established genre thanks to Robert E. Howard.. and this painstakingly-compiled collection of every Depression-era 'Conan The Barbarian' story ever published demonstrates why it became so popular - spawning comicbooks & graphic novels, influencing countless films & books, and informing many of the best RPGs available. The formula is strikingly sophomoric [every story involves confronting unnatural foes, wantonly killing with naked steel, and ravaging (eventually willing) wenches], but Howard's characters are surprisingly rich, the action is well-scripted, and descriptions - while often fairly subdued - prompt mind's-eye imagination.
The introductory remarks and short recaps before each Howard story by author/annotator Finn J.D. John are scholarly and collated authoritatively from newspaper critics, English Lit professors, and books written on the author, but they're honestly pretty dry. Yes, John's insights (and organization) put the imaginations of Mr. Howard into context, but the fantasy itself is the true star of this audiobook.
Two observations:
1. As John points out, Conan plots are unapologetically superficial and quite trope-y - but I think that's more due to the short novella format that publication in 'Weird Tales' demanded than the simple need to write something commercial and pay bills. Regardless, the writing is fed by a broad vocabulary and is actually pretty sophisticated
2. The accompanying PDF is incredibly useful: those who like reading along with the audiobook will doubtless appreciate it (I used it more for the Index and map of Conan's world). Many thanks are owed to the producers for this brilliant addition.
Regarding the performance: Finn J.D. John clearly loves his subject matter and reads with remarkable emotiveness, but his amateur status as a narrator shows through: His diction, timbre, and cadence are creditable, but his tone is slightly too serious, he reads a little too slowly (I found listening at 1.10X was optimal), and his voice-acting is burdened with stereotypes & melodrama: Female characters have a chuckleworthy falsetto and his Conan sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the bad guy in a Bruce Lee movie, for example.
Pulp-Lit Productions probably should have insisted on a professional reader.
Fans of Fantasy/SciFi like me will absolutely enjoy this iteration of the complete Conan catalogue. It's a little too much to listen to all 139 Chapters of this audiobook consecutively (I recommend breaking the collection up and listening to something else intermittently), but it's an excellent diversion over a few days.
Altogether, this recording would be a 9 star production with better performance, but as it stands, I still judge the product worthy of 7.5 stars out of 10. Enjoy.
TO THE PRODUCERS: The Chapters in the Audiobook are off from the PDF guide by one. Simply renaming the Opening Credits "Chapter One" would fix this..and yield a 139 chapter recording as listed
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2019-08-24
Excellent writing paired with a talented narrator.
I didn't truly appreciate the narration of Finn J. D. John until I listened to something else - this was my first try at a true audio book experience.
As for the stories of Conan; I found the writing of Robert E. Howard to be very interesting and exciting - I realize that the stories don't age well - and will likely offend many thay listen to it as it comes of as incredibly racially insensitive or sexist at several parts - if you can look past this, and immerse yourself in the world Robert has laid out, and you enjoy fantasy stories of the Sword & Sorcery genre (Robert E. Howard is often credited as being the father of said genre.), then Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus is definitely worth giving a shot.
(I've listened to it several times already; Finn's narration truly is something to be appreciated - I don't find it difficult to imagine the characters he's portraying, even when the character is female - he has a very wide range and is a talented storyteller - I find it helps to evoke the powerful imagery Robert uses in his writing.)
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